CBI may take over suicide case, Rathore gets interim bail

Disgraced former Haryana top cop SPS Rathore on Friday got a week's interim bail against arrest in two cases as the Central government indicated that the CBI may take over the case of abetment to suicide of teenager Ruchika Girhotra.

The 67-year-old former DGP got the bail from Sessions Court in Panchkula which posted the hearing in two cases of harassment of Ruchika's brother Ashu which includes a charge of attempt to murder and the doctoring of report of her postmortem.

Even as he got a temporary reprieve, highly placed sources in Central government said that the CBI may take over the case relating to serious charge of abetment to suicide against Rathore after Haryana government registers an FIR.

An application was filed on Thursday by Ruchika's brother Ashu that he was tortured and his family was harassed so much that the girl was driven to suicide and wanted filing of a case under 306 of IPC (abetment to suicide).

District and Sessions Judge S P Singh, who gave the bail, imposed conditions on Rathore that included he would not leave the country without court's permission and also not threaten any one connected with the case.

Rathore's lawyer wife Abha, who argued the bail application, levelled a series of allegations against Ruchika's family and claimed "step-motherly treatment" of the girl by one Veena, to whom Ruchika's father Subhas Chandra, she claimed, was remarried, drove her to commit suicide.

Family lawyer Pankaj Bhardwaj dismissed the allegation and challenged Abha to show the marriage certificate while Ruchika's friend Aradhana's father Anand Parkash said Veena had looked after the two children but Subhash had never remarried.

Meanwhile, Chandigarh SDM Prerna Puri, who was asked by UT administration to submit a report on "expulsion" of Ruchika by the Sacred Heart School, visited the house of Anand Parkash in Panchkula.

"She asked us about the circumstances leading to Ruchika's expulsion from school and other details," Parkash, father of the victim's friend Aradhana, told reporters here.

Contrary to the school's assertions, Parkash alleged that she was expelled under Rathore's pressure.

He said Ruchika's family had only missed payment for one semester but the school "refused" to accept the fees without assigning any reason.

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